Happy Birthday, James
by Alice Prongs
Summary: James Potter cannot believe that everyone forgot his birthday. He's turning 18, for Merlin's sakes, and they hadn't ever forgotten before, so why the bloody hell none of his friends nor his girlfriend had dignified themselves to remember it today? It wasn't possible! There was something going on and he was going to find out what it was.
Ever since he was a kid, James Potter's birthdays had always been a big event. His mom and dad, Euphemia and Fleamont Potter, were never really against spoiling him. Being the only child of older parents had its perks after all. Up until Hogwarts he got lots of presents and had big parties thrown for him, even if those didn't always have that many kids for him to play with. And once he was on Hogwarts, it didn't change much. He had three great friends that were always more than willing to throw him a party or plan some huge prank to celebrate the day.

Which was probably why he was so bummed out today, on his eighteenth birthday. It was his last year at school, they would all graduate in a few months and yet none of his friends had planned anything for him. Not even his girlfriend (yeah, he had a girlfriend now, Lily Evans, actually, ever heard of her?) had bothered to mention anything to him. She hadn't even offered him a private celebration with her on the Heads' dorm at night or anything like that. Really, what kind of friends were those that hadn't even been capable of acknowledging that his birthday was coming for the entire week?

He lay in bed in the morning of March 27th 1978 waiting for one of his friends to jump on him or wake him up by screaming or even a bucket of water. He waited for his beautiful girlfriend to climb over him and pester him with kisses or maybe even something more. He waited. And nothing happened. No one bloody did anything on the morning of his birthday. The moment he realizes that he opens his eyes and sits up on the bed, throwing the blanket on the floor. There's still no laughter, no water, no hugs. The beds around him are all empty, even Frank's, and so he only gets ready for breakfast, maybe they're waiting downstairs, maybe Lily just didn't come up and is sitting in one of the armchairs in the Common Room, a smile on her lips.

She wasn't. Neither his bloody girlfriend nor his bloody best mates were down in the Common Room and that just made him proceed his miserable walk down to the Great Hall. He could only hope that then the ones that were supposed to care about him would dignify themselves to at least wish him a 'Happy Birthday' like even the unknown people that were passing by him on the hallways were doing.

Guess what? They didn't.

As he arrived to the Gryffindor table, Lily only looked up from her waffles, gave him a smile and a quick peck and went back to talking to Marlene (who also didn't bother to wish him a happy birthday or even say good morning). Sirius was nowhere in sight and Remus and Peter only nodded in greeting and kept eating like horses. So, obviously, he did what was expected for him to do.

He turned around and walked away with heavy steps.

 _And they didn't even bother to go after him!_

After that, he decided to give up on the people that, if they couldn't even remember his birthday, didn't deserve him and would only be considered insignificant things in his life from now on. This was why he was wandering the Hogwarts' hallways alone instead of snogging his incredibly fit girlfriend on a broom cupboard or planning a special prank with his friends to play on those Slytherins that had picked on Mary MacDonald the other day. Those suckers weren't worthy of his company on the most special day of the year anyway. It's not like he was bored or anything, especially since it was a Saturday so there were no classes and he could enjoy himself and have some alone time to…

"James! Hey, what are you doing alone here?" He turned around to find _her_ walking up to him, her red hair and her striking green eyes and that slightly too short skirt making it difficult for him to remember that he was mad, incredibly mad actually, at her.

"I'm just walking around." He said, and was incredibly proud of himself when he managed to sound curt and serious and not stupidly in love, which made a frown appear in Lily's face.

"Is everything okay, love?" Oh, come _on_ , she knew exactly what to do to make him forget everything but her, so it wasn't really far to him when she circled his neck with one arm and sank her hand on his hair, while the other one lay on his chest and she glued her entire body to his. Especially not when she pulled on his hair to bring his head down, bit his cheek teasingly and kissed the corner of his mouth.

"Everything's fine, Lily, I just…" He tried regaining conscious thinking and push her away, but he thought that he wasn't being very successful. Thought.

"Oh, okay, I'll see you later then." She interrupted him, gave him one last kiss on the cheek and stepped away. And then Lily _freaking tease_ Evans turned around and walked back the way she came, leaving him alone in the hallway even more frustrated (and not just sexually) than he was before.

So he did the reasonable thing one does in situations like this and stormed off to the opposite direction that she had gone.

It's ridiculous, it really is. None of them, not even one, remembers his birthday. There is no explanation to that, considering the previous six years in which they've known each other and that had never happened.

His last year's birthday had actually been one of the best days of his life. For the first time since the second year, Lily had wished him a happy birthday. She had smiled at him and given him a kiss on the cheek and a carefully wrapped little box. There was a miniature stag inside that she had charmed so it actually skipped around. It had been the first sign that things might be looking up to him in the 'love of my life' department. So how come this year she had forgotten?

There was something going on, he could feel it. And he could barely contain himself from going over to them and giving them a few good shakes to see if that rekindled their memories.

His theory was confirmed when he bumped into Dorcas on the Common Room. She looked up at him with a scared expression on her face and didn't wish him a Happy Birthday. Really, that whole forgetting what day it was thing was getting pretty annoying.

"Hey, James! Sorry, I didn't see you there." She stuttered and before she could leave he held her wrist.

"No problem, Doe, don't worry, but listen, have you seen the Marauders or Lily around? I've barely seen them all day." Her eyes widened for a second in surprise before she answered in a nonchalant voice.

"Last time I saw the boys they were going off to play some prank and…" He didn't let her finish.

"Wait, _what_? They went off to play a prank without me?" Dorcas's eyes widened again as if she was realizing what she had said. He, on the other hand, was really torn between believing her words and getting extremely mad at his so called friends or not believing her because it couldn't be possible that on top of forgetting his birthday they would plan a prank without him. There was something going on, and he was going to find out what it was.

So he turned around and walked out of the portrait hole again just to bump into Lily, who, quite surprisingly in his opinion, smiled gleefully when she saw it was him.

"James! Here you are. I've been looking for you." She said, giving him a peck on the lips and throwing her arms around his neck. He tried to focus on thinking straight with the short distance between their faces (and so between their lips) because, honestly, when her green eyes were looking up at him like that, it was easy to forget that he was pissed off at her.

But he managed to remember. "Oh, is that right? Now that's something I wasn't expecting." He grumbled, making her frown at his tone and at the fact that he wasn't smiling back at her nor was he circling his arms around her waist.

"What are you talking about, babe? Come on, I've got something to show you." She smiled confusedly and sweetly and took his hand, starting to drag him down the hallway, but he stood his ground. Now she had something to show him? The entire day had gone by and she hadn't even remembered that it was his freaking _birthday_!

"What the bloody hell is going on, Evans?" He grumbled again, his tone not even one bit friendly, and this time she looked at him with an annoyed expression.

"Oh, are we back to Evans then? What the bloody hell is going on with you, _Potter_? I just want to show you something, what's the problem with that?" She let go of his hand and crossed her arms, staring him straight in the eye with a raised eyebrow.

"The problem, _Evans_ , as you call it, is that all day you've—" But she didn't let him finish his rant. She stepped forward and pressed her lips to his in a way that he really wasn't expecting, which was obviously why he was with his guard down and was unable to push her away as one of her hands sunk into his hair and the other grabbed his waist.

As they kissed, she started walking, guiding him somewhere without him even realizing what was happening. In his defense, he had his super hot girlfriend in his arms and his tongue inside her mouth, really not focusing on where they were going or in everything that had been happening all day, but rather what they were going to do in a few moments when they were on a private space where they wouldn't be interrupted.

Which was also why he didn't notice that Lily had been reaching for a door handle behind his back, opening the door and pushing him into a room.

Which was why he almost had a heart attack as lights came on and lots of screaming started happening around him.

He jumped away from Lily and turned around quickly, thinking they had been caught on the almost act and that a few heavy detentions were coming their way, but that wasn't the scene that greeted him. Instead, standing in front of him were a whole bunch of Gryffindors, Sirius, Remus and Peter on the front. He saw Marley standing with Dorcas behind them along with Alice and Frank, all of them smiling at him. There was all of his Quidditch team, a few Gryffindor sixth years that he talked to, the other Prefects and also quite a few people from the other Houses. They were all under a big sign where it was written _'Happy Birthday, James!'_. A snitch that was painted on it flew between the letters.

He was gaping for quite a while as he stared at all his friends that looked like they were going to crack up laughing at him at any moment until Lily stepped up to him and took his hand, giving him a kiss on the cheek and also smiling brightly. "You didn't actually believe that we had forgotten your birthday, did you?"

He was only able to pass one of his arms around her waist and pull her against him for a rushed but heated kiss before the room exploded in cheers once again and he was separated from her by all the people that had suddenly decided to wish him the Happy Birthday they hadn't wished for the entire day. He received big bear hugs and punches on the arm and slaps on the back on the head from the Marauders and Frank when they came to him, and then it was Alice's turn and she gave him a kiss on the cheek and a hug as she apologized profusely for not having said anything before, because she had hated making him feel sad and lonely and rejected (he tried to interject on her rambling and tell him that he had not felt such things, but she didn't let him speak between her _'I'm sorry's_ ) but that everyone would have killed her if she had ruined their plan. Then came Marley and Doe, who hugged him and yelled by his ear as they laughed and told him he had looked like a big grieving buffoon all day at the thought of being forgotten by them (again, he had not looked like any of those things) and before he could thank them on their supreme kindness they had already left.

And so he was greeted by his House mates, his Quidditch players and a whole other bunch of Hogwarts' students and it took him quite a while before he was able to see either his friends or Lily again.

The first thing he did when he reached the Marauders was give them strong punches as payback for what they had done. He ignored them as they complained and called him an ungrateful bastard and threatened him of never throwing him another surprise party ever again and proceeded to go to Lily and pout over the fact that, even if she had done that huge thing, she had ignored him for his entire birthday. She only smiled, rolled her eyes and kissed his pout away.

He didn't complain anymore.

It turned out that what had started as his worst birthday ever turned out to be his best one. He was in his last months in Hogwarts and his best friends and the love of his life had thrown him a crazy fun party. He spent the night laughing and talking and dancing and drinking with the people he loved the most in the world and he thought he had never had more fun than in those moments. He hadn't been rejected or forgotten after all, and his friends were crazy and they drove him crazy, but they loved him just as much as he loved them and that counted as something.

For those hours that they had in that room, no one spoke of the war that was waiting them outside the walls of the school, or the fact that all of them weren't going to think twice before risking their lives and fighting against Voldemort. During those hours they were only the eighteen year old teenagers they were supposed to be and they were stupid and childish and happy. Three years later, when he was turning 21 and was locked up in his own house with his son and his wife, he would remember that day and he would smile and laugh at their silliness and craziness.

Besides, after the party, Lily had indeed whispered teasingly in his ear as she offered him their own private celebration in the Head's dorm and he had gladly accepted her offer.

He certainly didn't regret it.


End file.
